To be in good or bad humour: Construction of the state form of the State-Trait-Cheerfulness-inventory—STCI

Abstract

The present paper outlines the relevance of the states of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood for research on the emotion of exhilaration. Definitions of the concepts are undertaken and the construction strategy for the State-Trait-Cheerfulness-Inventory (STCI) is outlined. The pilot version with 40 items was administered to altogether more than 800 subjects. Empirical analyses of the concepts included the study of the homogeneity of the items in both inter-and intraindividual variation, the identification of sub-clusters, and the demonstrations of the sensitivity of items for mood alterations. The standard state form with 10 items per scale, i.e. the STCI-S[30] was developed based on the data of a construction sample (N = 595) utilizing five criteria for the selection of items. The internal consistency of the scales proved to be satisfactory in various independent subject samples and the expected scale intercorrelations emerged. The factor structure of the items appeared to be highly generalizable across different sources of variation, gender, nationality (U.S.A. vs Germany), and time spans covered. A joint factor analysis of the state and trait items yielded factors of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood both as traits and states with the homologous concepts correlating positively. Convergence of states and traits was also obtained for peer-evaluation data. Finally, the possible range of variation in the three scales across different (experimentally manipulated or naturally occurring) conditions was explored.

Humor-based online positive psychology interventions: A randomized placebo-controlled long-term trial

“…One could also think of more proximate outcomes of humor-based PPIs which aim at increasing the participants' senses of humor (McGhee, 2010b) or other traits which might also contribute to well-being (e.g., serenity, or cheerfulness; e.g., Ruch, Köhler, & Van Thriel, 1997). …”

Humor(lessness) elucidated – Sense of humor in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Review and Introduction

“…However, in the field of humor research, many instruments were developed that tap into the different domains of humor that go beyond joke processing in order to assess more diverse concepts related to humor. For example, certain instruments assess different mood and mind states that affect the susceptibility to humor (cheerfulness, seriousness, bad mood: Ruch et al 1996Ruch et al , 1997, while others focus on different humor styles (Martin et al 2003), or different humor behaviors (e.g., socially cold or warm humor, Craik et al 1996).…”

Trait cheerfulness modulates BOLD response in lateral cortical but not limbic brain areas—A pilot fMRI study

“…We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to detect brain regions in which the inter-individual variability in the cerebral BOLD response while watching funny and non-funny cartoons is correlated with the inter-individual variability in traitcheerfulness measured with the state-trait-cheerfulness inventory (STCI, [33]). …”

“…Trait cheerfulness can be reliably assessed using the trait part of the "State-traitcheerfulness inventory" (STCI-T) by Ruch [32], English version [33]. The State-TraitCheerfulness-Inventory (STCI) is an instrument used to operationally measure the qualities of cheerfulness, seriousness, and bad mood.…”

“…In a subgroup of this sample, the "trait cheerfulness" was assessed using the German state-trait-cheerfulness inventory [33] and we correlated individual's scores on this questionnaire with the subjects' BOLD-responses while watching Gary Larson cartoons. The aim of this exploratory study was to determine whether or not the location of regions of BOLD responses could be predicted by results from "humor personality" scores.…”